I'm in the process of building a new office/studio. We're trying to make some decisions about lighting, and I thought I'd see if anyone here has any opinions. I'm planning on illuminating the walls of my office with track lighting, and maybe using just a fan light in the middle for general purpose lighting. I expect that one wall will be primarily used for evaluating prints, and another wall will be for displaying prints.
I was all set to just order some tracks from Solux and their 3500k bulbs. But my wife insisted I talk to a lighting designer. He's of the opinion that the Solux bulbs are pretty good but that GE bulbs are better for 2 reasons.
1. The reflective coating on the back of the Solux bulbs degrades over time and this effects the color of the light. While the GE bulbs reflective material is different and more robust. He showed me a couple of Solux bulbs where the reflective material was literally falling off.
2. He also said that the color of the GE bulbs was better for evaluation. When I looked at my prints with the two lights I couldn't really say that one was better than the other, but they did look different. He didn't have the 3500k Solux bulb on hand for me to see.
Do you guys have any thoughts on these issues? Anyone looked at the GE MR-16 bulbs, or know about the supposed decay of the Solux bulbs?
Thanks, Derek
When I first started out in the fine art reproduction business I spent a lot of time and money on lighting. Initially I went with Solux floods and tracks at the walls, with supplemental overhead lighting. As my business grew, I needed the wall space for equipment and racks rather than display, so now I've illuminated my entire 1200 sguare foot studio w/ceiling mount 4' 4-lamp fluorescent fixtures and GE Sunshine 5000K, CRI 90 bulbs. The fixtures are flicker-free, 0° cold start, T8/T12 capability, American Lighting Performance Plus. Some fixtures are mounted lower, from chain, where needed for task lighting. Although these fixtures direct light in a laminar fashion, for task lighting I've used T8 bulbs for an even more concentrated light pattern on the table surfaces.
After much concern about achieving the 'correct' color lighting, I realized that my clients were displaying in galleries and homes where there was not much concern about the 'correct' color of lighting. Even when a client walks out of my studio and into the daylight, the appearance of my reproductions change color; if it is a cloudy day (blue), afternoon or morning sun (orange), or mid day on the north side of my building (more blue than my studio light). And it doesn't matter whether it is a photographic print or a canvas gicleé...the chances of the final destination of that reproduction having the same light as my studio, no matter what brand or type of lighting I use, is nil.
In addition to a good level of illumination, all that I've tried to achieve is a fairly close match of studio lighting, large format scanner lights, and monitors, with everything as close to 5000k and CRI 100 as possible.
It works for me.
